What’s stopping you from creating the virtual assistant business that you want?

There are a lot of things that can stop us from creating the life that we really want—from creating the virtual assistant business that we really want.

But it’s mostly about us getting in our own way.

Check out today’s video where I touch on the 4 most common stumbling blocks, and how to work past them (transcript below):

Full transcript:

It’s Alicia here at New VA Advice. I have a message that I want to share with you today. It all started with an important question that I asked myself.

Here was my important question:

“Is my hair good enough for video today?”

Yes, I’m not lying. That was my important question today.

Why am I sharing this?

Because these are the things that we do to ourselves.

Let me give you an idea of the kind of person that I was before I owned a business and got on video.

I was pretty smart in school, but I was very self-conscious. The teacher would ask a question in class. If you knew the answer, you would raise your hand. You wanted her to call on you so that you could give the answer. Even if I was 99.9% sure that I knew the answer, I wouldn’t raise my hand because I was afraid. That would mean that people might look at me. People would hear my voice. I would have to talk. People would pay attention to that. I couldn’t have that.

Remember in school when you had to give an oral report? Everyone would be assigned a subject. You’d have a day where you had to go up in front of the class and give your report to everyone. The anxiety that I had leading up to the days when my report was due was horrible. I never enjoyed getting up in front of people. I just wanted to melt into the floor.

Maybe you can relate to that.

How did I go from that to doing video, especially live video, which can be very intimidating?

It wasn’t an overnight thing. It was one step at a time. I didn’t start with live video. I did some voice recordings. I did screensharing videos. I did things that were very scripted. Then I was interviewed by people. Eventually, I moved on to video.

What I realized was that the message that I’m delivering is more important than:

What my hair looks like

If I’m at the perfect weight

If my makeup is just right

It’s more important that I show up, and show you that a real person just like you can create a business and love it.

I want to encourage, educate and empower people. That’s way more important than what my hair looks like.

Let’s talk about you.

What is holding you back from creating the service-based business that you want?

I know that there are things you want.

You want time freedom.

You want financial freedom.

What things do you say to yourself that hold you back from taking the steps that you need to take?

Let’s talk about some of the common ones.

Common reason #1:

“I don’t have the skills that I need.”

A lot of people don’t realize that the skills they already posses are something that someone would pay for. Often, it’s the things that you’re naturally good at. It’s easy for you. You might feel like, if it’s too easy, someone won’t pay you to do that. Well, it doesn’t come easy to everyone. Even if it does come easy to them, it might not be something that’s in their wheelhouse. They would much rather pay someone else to do it.

First, you need to asses the skills that you have. It’s possible that you could turn them into services that someone will pay you for.

If you need to advance your skills, there are a lot of really great ways. You can take a course online for just one skill. You’re not paying thousands of dollars and signing up for a semester of college. You can just take an online course. There are free ones out there to get you started. There are paid ones at lower price points.

When I started, I made a list of my skills. One that I wanted to add, but didn’t have any experience in, was general transcription. I saw the potential there. I had never done it before. I saved up my money and bought an ecourse. I think it was $37 at the time.

I took my time and did some research. I made sure it was something that I really wanted, that it made sense with how I like to work, what I’m good at, and that someone would pay for. I thought about the market that I wanted to work with. Then I researched where I could learn this material without spending a lot of money.

I found this ecourse and then did some research on it. I researched the person who wrote the ecourse as well as reviews of the ecourse. It’s not hard to do online. You can Google anything and find reviews. You can Google the person’s name with the word “scam” to see what comes up. I did this for the person who wrote the ecourse, who is now a lifelong online friend. At the time, I Googled her. I wanted to know if this was real.

Don’t let the whole skills thing hold you back. There may be something you can offer right now and something else you can be learning on the side.

Common reason #2:

“I’m not good at tech.”

I wasn’t good at tech either. I didn’t know the first thing about making a website. I had never done it before. I didn’t know what WordPress was. I started investigating and learned what I could. I figured out that I really wanted a website to start my business so that I would have a home base online. WordPress seemed like the way to go after my research.

What was I going to do? I didn’t know how to code. I didn’t know how to create a website. I had no idea what I was doing. I reached out to my contacts. I have a friend who is a realtor. He built his website using WordPress. He came over one afternoon to show me some of the basics.

Was that whole process easy? No. I had to reach out. No one just handed it to me. I had to call him. We talked about it. He came over. I had a newborn at the time. My baby was there in his bouncy seat. I was trying to pay attention to the baby while my friend was teaching me WordPress. But I did it. I figured out a way to get it done because I wanted it.

Common reason #3:

“I don’t have enough money to get started.”

I hear this one all the time. I didn’t have any money to start my business because of the position that I was in. I was laid off and pregnant. I wasn’t planning on starting a business at that time.

Side note: I’m not telling you that you should quit your job and start a business today. If you do have a full-time job right now, even if you hate it, keep it for a while and build up a nest egg. Then you can use that money to build your business.

I didn’t have the money, so I had to be smart. I had to look at what was available to me. You have so many things at your disposal now online that didn’t exist before. There are ways to learn things. Think about the connections that you have. Does anyone owe you a favor for something that you could call in? Maybe they have a skill that they could teach you.

Just get what you need. You don’t need all the bells and whistles to start your business. I didn’t have all the fancy things. Look at my videos. I don’t have a hair and makeup person. I don’t have a studio. All of those things are awesome. I love watching videos of people who have all of that. I’m sitting here in my dining room, but I’m doing it.

I’m providing something that’s important to someone. I’m helping someone. You have skills that can help someone, too. Don’t let the money thing get in the way.

Start with where you’re at. You don’t need to start with bells and whistles to be successful.

Common reason #4

“I don’t have the time to start a business.”

People make time for what is important to them.

Think about what’s important to you. Are there little pockets of time where you can fit in working on your business? I’m not saying that it’s going to be easy. I’m not saying that you won’t be busy.

I had a brand-new baby. I was nursing. My husband works 12-hour shifts. I wasn’t brining in other income. It wasn’t simple, but I figured out a schedule that worked for me. I made it important.

I made it a priority and fit in time to do it.

Maybe you get a lunch break at work. You can hop on your computer and work on your business. You can cut out some TV watching time and social media time. That takes up a lot more time in your day than you think. Even if you took a half hour to 45 minutes of that time and used it to work on building your business, you will be further along.

It’s all about that one next small step that you can take.

That’s how it happens. No one is an overnight success. I don’t want you to strive for that. I want you to think about what’s holding you back from doing this and see how you can break through that. Take one step towards what you want.

You don’t need a perfect website. Some people start without one. You’re going to play with it forever. There are so many tweaks you can make. There is always something to do to your website. That’s not the important part. Just put it up there. Put words on the page. Make the page live.

You don’t need perfect hair to talk to potential clients. Just start making connections. Be real. Be genuine. Build relationships. Everything that I teach is about using a relationship marketing strategy. You can do that without a ton of money. That’s how I built my VA business. I didn’t have money for ads and fancy marketing techniques. It’s about building relationships and being real.

How can you help someone? That’s really what you’re doing. You’re providing a service that’s going to help someone. How can you build relationships? You have a lot of free tools at your disposal online to do that. Take advantage of it.

Stop worrying about the perfect website. Stop worrying about the perfect hair. Remember that people need you. You have something valuable to offer. People will pay you for that.

You deserve this life that you want, whatever it means for you. Why not you?

Think about what’s holding you back.

What’s one step that you can take to push through that and move forward?

About Alicia Jay

Alicia Jay is a WAHM virtual assistant who is passionate about helping other women along their VA journey. She’s already dealt with the overwhelm and the scammers and wants to be that trusted resource for you so that you can skip all of that and build your business! CLICK HERE to sign up for VA tips, news and info as well as THREE awesome resources to help get your VA biz started and getting clients!